You beat me to the comment I wanted to make. I was impressed by the Datahand when it first came out -- I could touch type even then, but I could not afford the device (I was a third-world high school student). Very sad that such a good product had to die because of bad management. 20 years of touch typing has taken a toll on my finger joints. I could really use a modern version of the Datahand. I'd gladly pay twice the price of a regular ergonomic keyboard for one.
I use a Kinesis Advantage. I have two of them actually, one for home use, and the other as at the office. I honestly would not have a job without them. I destroyed my wrists on that crappy Apple keyboard. It's awful for your wrists and gave me crippling RSI. If I use a laptop for more than an hour or two, I'm going to be feeling it later.
I've never tried the datahand. I'd love to but, my understanding is that they're super hard to find and very expensive. Also, there's a stigma that goes with weird looking keyboards. I always get comments about mine. People definitely prefer aesthetics over preventing an RSI.
Developers, protect your hands and wrists and get a GOOD keyboard.
I've been using one for a few months now. The layout has good comfortable placement, but the key feel is horribly mushy for my tastes. Very very rubbery, and I've occasionally had a key get stuck which is really confusing the first time it happens.
It's a stop gap while I wait for the King's Assembly to hopefully start shipping.
I'm still of the opinion that you should drop a good amount on your keyboard. It's your hands/wrists. You only get two of them. Once they go, you can kiss your software development career goodbye. The initial sticker price will suck but, if anything you can maybe write it off, assuming it's for work.
I'm kind of a stickler about this because my wrists were in pain for a solid 2 years. Sucked so much.
Thanks. I did see this and it's why I sort of narrowed down to that one. Amazon Q&A has it working on Linux so I might try it for myself. I was just wondering if anyone else had used it over an extended period of time.
It feels much less straining to type on compared to a regular laptop keyboard. I got it after I started having RSI and it has worked wonders combined with other treatments
I'd enjoy trying some of these alternative keyboards, but I'm addicted to TrackPoint.
Even for my desktop, I bought a "looks like just like my laptop" ThinkPad USB keyboard with a TrackPoint stick on it.
FWIW, I use vi bindings in everything I can, i3wm so I'm not wasting time dragging windows around, etc., but pragmatically I still use the mouse a lot, and it's too bad that (AFAIK?) none of these prototype/tricked out keyboards address the "okay now lift up your hand and move it 6" over to grab the mouse".
(I know TrackPoint is likely patented, but technically a few other vendors have had similar sticks over the years; maybe they had to license it? Dunno.)
We share the same goal, but I'm not a fan of TrackPoint.
Moved from a side-by-side monitor setup (laptop + external display) with external keyboard and mouse to an over-under configuration with my external (main) display elevated to eye level and my laptop, which I use primarily for its keyboard and trackpad (less for its display), on the desk.
Using the trackpad has completely alleviated the shoulder pain I used to feel when I was using an external mouse. When I switched, I worried that I'd miss my full numeric keypad. I do not.
I also love the thinkpad trackpoint, and I got one of the keyboards as well. But I can't deal with the control/fn key swap; I swap it in my laptop's bios, but can't do it on the keyboard.
And I use ratpoison with vim bindings on everything :)
On a side note. I have tried typing on an tablet well after learning touch typing on a normal keyboard. I remembered Jobs' presentation and back then I believed him how easy and wonderful it is to type on a pad. It is practically impossible, even typing something as simple as an url is a pain.
Maybe you're doing it wrong? I've typed lots of posts and articles on a pad. And of course people type tons of text (messages, etc) on their iPhones and Android phones every day...
I really freaking hate typing on an iPhone 4s. I frequently hit space instead of a or backspace instead of l or m.
The keyboard isn't always the same and so sometimes I hit . instead of space.
The cheap bluetooth keyboard I bought makes typing very much nicer. That bluetooth keyboard is almost a toy, which is some indication of how terrible iPhone typing experience is.
(On a tangent: a version of that game using the hundred most commonly misspelled English words, or a simple / plain English vocabulary list would be useful. Especially if they software could speak the words at you.)
That game is horribly inaccurate. I downloaded it just now and on my first run it said I typed 185 words per minute average. That is over three words per second and I was typing nowhere close to that. More like 30 WPM while on a real keyboard I max out at 160 WPM with an average of 142.
Still, that means I would be even more likely to pay for a spelling / typing game that had more accurate speed tests. I'm not particularly keen on the weapons theme, so some cutesy forrest animals throwing snowballs might work.
>According to this game I have an average speed of 157 WPM on an iPhone 4s
Sorry, but how does that counter what I said? Parent said that typing on a touchscreen "It is practically impossible".
If you have 157 WPM on iPhone 4s then it's a counter-proof that as I said, it's anything but "practically impossible".
That you "hate it" is another thing, which I can understand. It's not the best experience in the world and obviously sub par to a full keyboard. But it's clearly not "impossible".
And your 157 WPM are for 4s as you said.
iPhone 6, with the larger target area and auto-prediction, makes it even easier, at least for me. And if the new model brings some tactile (force) feedback, that would be even better.
Regardless of whether Jobs would be proud or not, for both iOS AND Android AND Windows Phone, touch screen keyboards are the #1 most popular type, and for good reason. The people have spoken.
If they were such a hidrance people could always still buy the keyboard models they abandonded en masse starting 2007.
Not really. Phones and tablets are mainly used for consuming data, not creating it. Text messages / whatsapp are usually short. Do you actually know anyone that writes more than a normal letter page on a touchscreen? (I am sure they are out there, but in a minority).
These were pretty neat, and very nearly Apple's best keyboard. But I went through several of them; the keys would wear out after about six months of use (not sure what failed, my guess was keyboard contacts).
The Fujitsu KBPC E is a similar USB keyboard. Quality is adequate -- no mechanical keys etc -- but it's pretty flexible and you can sometimes get new ones for low prices on eBay.
Since the split is adjustable, you can experiment with the separation. That should help you decide whether you want to go for a more dramatic ergonomic model.
When I first started having pains in my wrist, I learned Dvorak and am very grateful I did so. Unfortunately, I still deal with repetitive stress from keyboard use and would love an alternative to the standard keyboard.
I've looked at the Datahand, but I move around a lot with my laptop, and the Datahand isn't exactly a mobile-friendly solution.
I used to think being able to touch type on any surface would be really cool, but after some experience with the nightmare that is typing on a touch-screen mobile, I'm convinced it would just be frustrating. What makes typing satisfying (and accurate) is the feedback you get when a switch has actuated; otherwise you must be much more hesitant with your keystrokes.
FWIW I had the same objection to a fancy stationary keyboard as you, so I ended up designing and building my own tiny travel keyboard: https://github.com/technomancy/atreus
Kudos on creating your own keyboard! How long did the design process take and do you find it helps you maintain healthy typing habits?
As for the 'cool' aspects of the Soli, I really could care less. (I've never cared about 'cool'/'hip'/'meme' things.)
I simply think the Soli, or other projects like it, will actually open up many, very different avenues to resolve tactile input needs.
===========
One Concept
===========
For example, I can envision having something sort of like wrist splints that I could strap to the bottom of my forearms when I expect to be doing a lot of dedicated keyboarding. On the hand-end of the splint would be traditional tactile keys (e.g. Cherry keys). But the 'splints' and their keys wouldn't have any electronics or be functional in the way our current keyboards are. Since the 'splints' won't actually be functional, there won't be wires, which means users can move their arms freely (e.g. put them on a chair's armrests, or drop them to their sides when at a standing desk). Meanwhile, the user's input is tracked by something like the Soli. The 'splint' would be custom printed for each user, and the keys could be affixed in many different ways that would facilitate maximum ergonomic positioning for each individual user's keys and individual users would pick keys that had the tactile feedback the user desires.
Alternatively, for a graphic artist, a similar 'splint' like approach could be taken, but instead of dedicated keys, there may be small ridges, bumps, or indentations to mark important locations (e.g. a horizontal dash for the home keys and indications between keyboard keys) such that they could easily switch between typing and mousing. A setup like this would lack the tactile feedback of physical keys, but would be better suited to mouse or tablet-like drawing.
For those of us that want more functionality, there may be a keystroke or hand-motion that would move, or otherwise minimize, the input pad portion of the 'splint' so that we could pick up a drink or write on a white-board, without having to remove the splints.
==============
Other Concepts
==============
But something like the Soli would facilitate many more alternatives. For example, I could custom 3d-print a couple of pads for my thighs (something like a pilot's kneeboard, but not as bulky - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot's_kneeboard). When I'm sitting in a dark auditorium, I could be typing notes to my closed but still powered on device.
Since I expect something like the Soli can easily be packaged in a watch-type form, there are also lower hanging possibilities, such as interacting with public projectors, or having virtual buttons around the house (e.g. when I press the start button on my clothes washer, my Soli-watch automatically starts a timer for me, and alerts me when it's time to move the clothes to the dryer).
And just to be very illustrative, a person could easily 3d print (or mill wood into) DataHand-like blocks, or Atreus blocks ;-), and put Cherry keys in these blocks, then use the Soli to interpret the keystrokes. An option like this is likely to be much more customizable than anything the original article will do. It would be easier to actually construct (e.g. no wiring). And depending on the pricing of the Soli, may end up being cheaper to boot (specifically if the Soli is used in ways beyond just keyboarding input).
In other words, I think the Soli (or other projects like it) will open up input methods you haven't even considered, and optimize ideas which haven't been easy to implement with current technologies.
I purchased a late-model Datahand in 2007. I was living in Phoenix at the time, and picked it up in-person. I paid around $700 for it.
What a waste of money.
It was impossible to learn how to use. Even the employee who gave me a demo could only type slowly with it. I'm sure some people mastered it, but for me, it just wasn't worth the effort. But it sure looked cool. I wanted so bad to learn how to use it, but I also had to get work done. I ended up selling it on eBay a couple years later to (I think) a Google employee.
I took it apart a few times.
The switches were simple, but novel - optical beam (if memory serves) that broke when you pushed the switch away from the central mount (one "mount" per finger, four side switches one center switch.) If I remember correctly, the switches were magnetic, so that when you relaxed your finger, they'd snap back to the mount.
You could easily 3D print the switches nowadays. The device is a lot simpler than you'd think.
OP author here. My source at the now defunct Datahand company had told me that at the end of the company's life they produced very low-quality units. 50% of the units did not function properly, so it's possible that was a factor in your trouble learning.
More likely though is that you gave up too soon. I know it's hard at first but like most things worth doing it takes practice. Maybe I'm biased by my special situation though.
When buying my Datahand I was very lucky. Someone was selling a pair in Sunnyvale for $30. It was in Dvorak (still is) and I had just decided to switch from SublimeText to vim. So for the next three weeks I plowed through using the Datahand (which was easy) on top of learning a new keyboard layout (which was hard) and all the vim movement/editing commands (which was annoying). It was a big chunk of effort. The hardest part by far was __not cheating and switching back to my normal habits when the going got tough__. If you already know how to accomplish a task and you're trying to learn a new method - it's very, very hard not to fall back to your proven method under the pressure of frustration. I fought that pressure many times over those three weeks but it's been one of the easiest and most rewarding investments. There's always time to save time, and their's always time for your health.
I also got one for a small fortune, $500 (at the time I was a student) of ebay.
I tried to use it but it felt unnatural, especially since I have small hands it required some effort to my fingers to hit the north switch. I kept it as it looks very cool but I guess I'll probably sell it since I have no use for it.
I like the idea behind the asetniop [1] chording keyboard, but it seems to be optimized for writing (which makes sense given how it auto-completes words). A few common characters in programming are hard to get to and I'm not sure it would be as fast as I'd hoped.
These are possibly great but much like my foray into DVORAK layout, there's something to be said for consistency of layout. You just sit down and use it if it's the same as everyone else's. No embarrassing prodding and arguing with a basic keyboard. This was a killer for me in the end so I bought a shit Cherry G83 about a decade ago and have used that ever since. $20 well spent. Wonderful keyboard.
Id love one too. I won't give up my mx browns, but I feel that using something like the lines is would possibly avoid future wrist problems I may have. 220 pounds (UK here) is too much to drop on something like this without being able to at least try it for 15 minutes and see if I would actually use it day to day.
Yeah, I agree. However this particular keyboard may or may not work for me. I like my Cherry MX keyboard but it would be good to try something more ergonomic.
It wasn't the best keyboard, but the keys did seem to fall nicely underneath the natural angle of my wrists. It also didn't have the awkward feeling of a split keyboard.
As you can see the rule for the left index finger is: 4 R F V, but the keyboard you posted suggests a layout: 6 T F C
The latter layout look appealing, and I wonder why is touch typing using the former rule, since it makes both right and left hand move on a right diagonal instead of right-right, left-left.
At a first glance none of them has any visible advantage.
Seems like the main problem with that setup would be, if you turn your wrists outward to hit the 6TFC layout (and mirror with your right hand), you'll have quite a stretch to reach 'B' with either side. (Otherwise it would be great, as your wrists would be in a more natural position, without the need for a split keyboard.)
Exactly. Perhaps 'B' is the reason touch typing uses that strange rule. I'm using it, but the 'B' key was still hard to reach and was causing strain. So I remapped it to the right of 'L', where there is basically an unused key( I use 'shift + ,' to get ';' ).
I want to try the layout from that keyboard[0], but I wonder if it would be a waste of time, since it would take at least a month to obtain a normal typing speed.
The Datahand is a great tool for folks with severe injuries that make it painful or impossible to type on standard keyboards, but I wouldn‘t recommend them to someone healthy. Even the fastest Datahand typists I’ve seen only achieve moderately high speeds (though to be fair they can’t type on anything else, so that’s still a great boon). Sourcing used Datahands is difficult and expensive, and they have an extremely steep learning curve.
I’ve only ever tried typing on one for half a day, so don’t take what I say as gospel, but I’ve spent months thinking about keyboard shapes and hand anatomy, and my opinion is that many of the motions used by the Datahand are inherently awkward and slower to repeat or coordinate than the motions required for typing on more standard-ish keyboards. The idea is to use semi-awkward motions, but actuate with a very light touch, so that not much force is required, reducing impact shock. This is great for folks with injuries, but not the best way to optimize for healthy typists.
The standard keyboard does have significant flaws, but these can be solved in better ways, more closely aligned with human hand anatomy. Even on a standard keyboard, it’s possible to type without injury.
Here are some recommendations to help stave off RSI:
(1) Most importantly, keep your wrists as straight as you reasonably can. This is more important than any other aspect of typing technique IMO. Make sure to tilt the keyboard such that the plane of the keys is parallel to the plane of the forearms. Try using a low desk and/or a high chair and bringing the keyboard in close to the body to allow typing with the upper arms hanging down loosely instead of extending outward or forward, and the elbows at a >90° angle, with the wrists and palms floating in the air rather than resting on any surface. (2) Try to type with a springy light touch, and use only a little more force than absolutely necessary to actuate the keyswitches on whatever keyboard you use. If the keyboard is a cheap rubber dome board, and the keys must be mashed down hard to function, get a different keyboard. Mechanical keyswitches are much more comfortable for long-term typing. (3) Take brief breaks from typing every 15–30 minutes and longer breaks from sitting every hour or so. Stand up, stretch, go to the bathroom or get a fresh coffee. Walk around the block and think for a while if you want. Don’t type for 8+ hours/day if you can help it (you probably can unless you’re a data entry clerk or transcriptionist, and those jobs are getting rarer these days). (4) Try to get enough sleep, exercise, eat well, and avoid too much chronic stress.
For someone who wants something better (more efficient and more comfortable) than the standard layout:
(4) Try a split keyboard. An otherwise-standard split keyboard is a good gentle-learning-curve alternative, look up the Matias ErgoPro for the best one currently on the market. If you’re braver, try a Maltron or keyboardio. (5) Change the logical layout, try switching away from QWERTY to a layout that requires less awkward/uncomfortable motions. Most usefully, remap common functions like backspace, return, shift, escape, and arrows to more convenient locations. Add multiple layers and place common symbols and functions near the home row on a layer instead of at the far corner of the keyboard.
I could add a bunch more suggestions, but this comment is long enough for now.
>Try to get enough sleep, exercise, eat well, and avoid too much chronic stress.
Specifically, do exercises which strengthen your hands, wrists, and arm muscles. In my early twenties my hands and lower arms would get so sore after a day of typing that I could barely move them, with searing pain shooting up my lower arms into my wrists. I knew I had to do something quick so I focused on strength, taking up climbing and water skiing. In less than a year I was pain free & twenty years on I'm still fine.
I know guys who took other approaches like using voice to text dictation, pretty much joining "the keyboard of the month club", using funky mouses, using wrist braces, etc., but never focused on exercise. From my limited sample set, I'm the only one not wearing a wrist brace and who can still type at 100+ WPM with no pain.
Don't underestimate the benefits of strength training when it comes to solving RSI. Of course your millage may vary. I suspect that once you have the first signs of RSI you need to be on top of it before permanent damage occurs, but there's some pretty good science out there which backs up strength training when it comes to mitigating RSI.
It doesn't seem to be specific about the exact type of exercise. Any idea on what's a good upper body exercise? Push-ups, bench press, shoulder press, etc? Some people say wrist curls are good because they build up the forearms.
I stick to mostly body weight exercises plus a weight vest. I avoid the bench press like the plague. It's a good way to get hurt. Wrist curls seem to be effective. Rock climbing has worked the best for me.
Good to see the link to the Mind Body approach — I tried all the variations on swapping out gadgets but eventually traced it back to excess caffeine causing me to work at a much higher level of stress. As an RSI sufferer I needed to relax and realize that I'm not going to get all my goals done today, but that that's ok. It's more of a mind problem than a body problem (I know lots of computer users who spend countless hours in ergonomically catastrophic positions).
A Sculpt with real switches. Oh what I'd pay for that! I currently use the Matias Ergo Pro, but even after months, I find myself still accidentally hitting the rearranged modifier keys. The arrow keys are annoyingly tiny, too. It's like they had a great design, then just untweaked it.
The Fn key is out of the way, making using things like the play/pause controls difficult (I never use them). The escape key is also difficult to hit. And, as expected, I've never used the Paste/Cut/Copy/Undo keys.
It's doubly annoying because the keyboard is almost all that I want, so these obvious, pointless defects are all the more hurtful. I'm not sure it actually wins against a Sculpt.
My personal anecdote to potentially avoid wrist problems: I never took classes in proper touch typing so I naturally evolved my “own” system over the years. My hands are placed on the standard keyboard in an angle similar to a split keyboard. My left hand rests on Capslock (bound to ctrl), w, e, f and my right on j, i, o, [.
So far I never had any problems this way but every time I try to work with my fingers on the home row, my wrist and arms immediately tell me to stop. I'm not as fast as a professional typist, but couldn't care less about mere speed as long as I'm comfortable.
My best advice against RSI is to get rid of the mouse and get a pen-tablet instead. This change has helped me two times (I switched back to a mouse after my first switch, and got RSI back after a while; switching back to pen-tablet resolved the RSI issues again).
Just something to add to your comment, I don't disagree with your suggestion: I frequently switched between a normal mouse, a Logitech Trackball (with the thumb on the ball, but I would definitely want to try one where I have to use the middle finger on the ball) and a Wacom pen-tablet.
When I used one of the devices for a couple of days or weeks and when the pain (at least an annoying feeling, not necessarily pain) came back, I switched to another one.
This is not the only option to avoid or decrease pain. Like some other commenters said: your body position is important, frequent pauses away from keyboard (good for your eyes too), a smaller keyboard so your mouse is closer to the imaginary center of your body, regular walks or runs are very good (when you walk, don't wear a heavy backpack or coat, so you can move your shoulders properly and relax your core, arms, shoulders and neck even more).
At the end, it's about listening more to your body, I guess. I ignored the symptoms for too long, not knowing what was happening to me. And finally the RSI kicked in. I'm glad I didn't have CTS, but I had to recover for a couple of months and slowly had to build up the time I spent behind mouse and keyboard again.
The Body and Mind approach some other commenter talked about is also important and, I think, at the core of the problem. Relax, don't stress behind your computer and mouse/keyboard. Peace of mind translates directly to a healthier body, in all sorts of ways.
Most current mice seem designed to violate the straight-wrist dictum as much as humanly possible. After a few years trying several low-profile mice I've settled on a trackball, in a recessed mount placing it near keycap height.
I get tight muscles down might right arm (I am assuming its from keyboard use). I can swa between left and right with the mouse. I use the mouse with my left hand, but my right hand side is tight still.
I used a das with blank keys and cherry blues for some years, got tired of looking for the characters under the numbers (never could reach them from the home row) and got a wasd keyboard with the number symbols printed there and nothing else.
At the same time, coincidentally, I switched to cherry Browns. Best. Decision. Ever.
I still have my das at home, and the wasd at the office, but I'm going to have to get a second wasd for home, switching back to the das every evening is too painful.
The other thing that is critical for making mechanical keyboards usable is a foam wrist rest. Even a cheap one from the web without testing will do wonders for mechanical keyboards with their keys set high. (I think the one good thing about the apple keyboards was that they keys were low enough to avoid those things.)
Author here - that's actually pretty close to what I have in mind. Coupling the mouse and the keyboard would be sweet, but I think the switches are a bit funky. Like on a regular keyboard it still takes each finger two movements to click. One for moving to the switch and one for pressing the switch. On a Datahand the act of moving to the switch is also the act of pressing it.
I just use these http://i.imgur.com/sghAbky.jpg (MS Ergo 4000) everywhere, they are sufficiently well built for the price point that I have one at home, one at the office and a spare in the closet in case either breaks.
with the wrist lift on the front they allow an entirely natural posture which I've found a big benefit, especially as I have a back condition so a relaxed neutral position is a big win.
It's a shame they seem to be replacing them in favour of a moderner version with chiclet style keys.
The Ergo 4000 is the keyboard that made me rage quit Microsoft keyboards. As far as I'm concerned it's the inflection point of the race to the bottom in the MS keyboard group. Bad key travel, bad decisions about keyboard layout, generally crappy build quality.
MS keyboards are frustrating. Their latest attempt at an ergo had a lot of promise, but they nerfed the function and escape keys to the point of unusabiity. (I know that F-keys are awful, but all of the software I use is addicted to them, so...)
I would pay quite a bit of money for a keyboard that didn't suck.
I just want a vanilla split keyboard with decent key travel. And it looks like I'm going to have to start building keyboards myself to get one.
Of course liking a keyboard is subjective but your description was absolutely not my experience and I've probably put 4000 hours on my pair in the last year and other than faded keycaps they look like new.
Not sure how you think they nerfed the F keys they are all there and in a reasonable position, the F-Lock stuff took a bit of getting used to as I kept hitting it instead of F12 but after a week or so that stopped and now I just don't use it.
Prior to using the Ergo's I was using MX Blue mechanicals so it's not like I came to them from bad keyboards, I had excellent mechanicals but the typing position was just untenable.
The F-keys are sunk with respect to the other keytops. Reaching them quickly and reliably is hard. And as an Emacs user, the escape key is out in comic relief territory.
Considering how often F-keys are used in Windows applications, I really wonder how much user testing the keyboard group did past "does this look cool?"
Interesting, I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out but they are indeed further out than normal.
I don't actually use them that much beyond Alt-F2 for synapse and Alt-F6 for rename which I've had no issues with.
The escape key is out the way but I can it reliably without thinking, I have large hands so I wonder how people with smaller ones would deal with that, I can hit escape without moving from the default position.
I have a few ergo 4000's and the build quality is most certainly not crappy, this makes me skeptical about your other grivences.
However, I have found that people not used to the tilted + split-key design style find it weird. And it is a big keyboard.
My personal issue with the 4000 is the worthless "zoom" toggle in the middle. It would be much better as a vertical scroll, or even better as a trackball/nub. Whatever Msft design committee who put the Zoom+Back/Forward buttons should be shot.
>I have a few ergo 4000's and the build quality is most certainly not crappy, this makes me skeptical about your other grivences.
Do you have the experience to say things like this? If you've used good keyboards the Ergo 4000 is just like every other crappy plastic rubber dome keyboard you can buy.
I do, prior to using the 4000's I was using mechanicals for a significant period of time (back to Model M's).
Yeah the key-feel on the 4000 isn't as good as a MX Blue or equiv but it's not significant enough to actually matter and in every other way they are a more comfortable experience.
The ErgoDox costs at least 5 times what a 4000 does so I'm not sure that's a fair comparison you are comparing a VW Polo to a Audi A7.
Perhaps I should quantify: "not crappy for the price". Sure you can get some snazzy stuff, but bang-for-the-buck I've found the 4000's have been a good price point.
Same, I've had two of them in use over a year and other some fading on the key letters they are exactly as good as the they where new and I replaced MX Blue mechanicals with them so it's not like I was coming from a bad keyboard.
I use the for/back buttons to bind all sorts of things (currently "build JS" and "build CSS" on front end side of project), The toggle in the middle I've never found a use for, I played with using it to tab through windows but honestly it's slower to move hands of keys than it is to just map the same functions to keyboard shortcuts.
On linux I have mapped the zoom to scroll/up down in the past but I'm so used to hitting pgup/pgdn it never stuck.
I probably have high standards. I really tried to use the 4000, on several occasions, but it just felt horrible every time. I had high hopes for it, but something about the key travel kept tripping me up.
Best keyboard I ever used: Knight keyboard on the Lisp Machine. Xerox Alto a very close second (it had some bad layout issues, but the keys were wonderful). And pretty much nothing has captured the feel of IBM Selectric, which is probably good because your office mates would kill you.
But none of those are split. Sigh.
Runner-up: The original Microsoft Ergo keyboard. I know some people who still use these. They usually have them in reserve, in closets. On mine I rewired caps-lock to be another control key (well, you have to muck with conductive traces on the plastic membrane, but it's not hard).
Microsoft hasn't made a great keyboard in over a decade. They're "meh, yeah I can type on that if I have to" and I'll use an Apple chicklet style keyboard over one of them.
The Kenesis Freestyle is pretty decent, though they decided to spend real-estate on some useless special keys for "web" and cut/paste, etc. -- if these had been programmable (or even absent) it would have been a better keyboard.
I just did a quick summary of all the keyboards I've spent significant amounts of time on (probably missed a few), and here they are in decreasing order: Knight (Lisp Machine); Xerox Alto; Digital Group (capacitive, N-key rollover); Microsoft Ergo; Kenesis Freestyle 2; IBM-PC original clacky keyboard; Apple Ergo; VT100; Microsoft Wireless Multimedia; Atari Mega ST (prototype); Apple ADB (several types); ADM-3A; Ohio Scientific; Macbook Pro; LA36; IBM Thinkpad; Data General MV/8000 terminal; Atari ST; Atari Mega ST (production); Kenesis "scooped" keyboard (hands did not fit); Atari 800; Apple II; Apple "chicklet"; VT220 (ick); Microsoft 4000; Many laptop keyboards of no special distinction (Apple / Dell / Asus / ...); IBM 3270 terminal circa 1980; AT&T 3B-1; Various VT100 clones; Dell, Gateway, etc. white-box PC keyboards; TRS-80; Omron (forgot model); Fingerworks (capacitive); Teletype; Atari 400 (membrane); a nameless graphics workstation I will never forget (and wish I could); IBM PC-JR; Vanilla Keypunch (ugh).
My favourite keyboard of all time was a variant of an IBM Model-M which was awesome, the nearest I've gotten to it in type feel was the Cherry G-80 which is somewhat strangely one of the cheapest mechanicals out there that has MX Blues, build quality is merely adequate and it lacks the "In the event of Zombie Apocalpyse use as club" steel backplate but it was a joy to type on but it was those I ended up replacing with 4000's because of postural issues.
If you're still using a straight keyboard (like the tiny Apple keyboard you see in this picture), you absolutely need to get an ergonomic keyboard now. Carpal tunnel syndrome will catch up with you eventually, in a minor or major way, but either way, once it hits, typing on a keyboard will hurt for the rest of your life.
You don't need to go with an expensive keyboard but at least, spend $30 and get yourself a Microsoft Natural keyboard, which is awesome and dirt cheap.
Go and try one of those first. I have been touch-typing for years, and the only thing I really, really like in a keyboard in the end is 1) knowing when I pushed a key or not, 2) flat fucking keys with distances between them and short travel.
So you might not like those curvy keyboards at all. I know I don't.
None of what you say invalidates what I said. You like typing on regular keyboards, fine. But you're killing your wrists and tendons one day at a time.
There are plenty of varieties of ergonomic keyboards, pretty sure you will eventually find one you'll like, especially if you give yourself some time to adjust.
I have had a look at the popular five-or-so, and really, no adjusting is going to get around the fact that I didn't like typing on any of them more than I like a flat, spacey key design with short travel.
And "regular keyboards" are a nightmare. They don't push your finger back when they activate.
I can sure understand where you're coming from, because I too have had the experience of being frustrated with a keyboard to the point where my wrists hurt all the time and I just avoid typing until I get to use something passable.
It's just that what's considered "ergonomic" is tied directly to the usage case. Many people won't find what you found where you looked for it.
The cheap Microsoft Natural has really shitty keys. Even if the ergonomics are perfect, somebody coming from Apple keys is really not going to like the mushy Natural keys. I couldn't pawn my Microsoft Natural off to anybody at the office. (I'm not saying Apple keys are that great - I use Cherry switches myself - but that's how bad the Natural ones are)
Good advice, but there are other methods also, like taking care of your wrists, massaging them, flexing them and so on. This is just based on my observations, but maybe like 90% of people don't seem to take breaks to stretch the wrists and the whole hand area. This helps too.
Yeah, they're pretty nasty. My model is from 1993. I've been using these rests since ~ 2011. That's what happens after intense use every day for years :(
Btw, it looks like the open source project is called Dodohand: https://github.com/dodohand/dodohand?files=1